One day, he was present
at a festival at the temple of Gaza. Outside in the square a multitude of young men and girls were gathered for the
festive dances... A beardless priest led the dances. He stood on the
top most step of the temple, holding an ivory baton in his hand. When
the music began the vast concourse stood immobile.... The beardless priest
turned pale and seemed to submerge his eyes in those of the dancers, which were fixed
responsively on his. He grew paler and paler; all the repressed fervor
of the crowd seemed to concentrate within his breast till it threatened
to choke him. Samson felt the blood stream to his heart; he himself would
have choked ifthe suspense had lasted a few moments longer. Suddenly,
with a rapid, almost inconspicuous movement, the priest raised his baton,
and all the white figures in the square sank down on the left knee
and threw the right arm towards heaven --a single movement, a single,
abrupt, murmurous harmony. The tens of thousands of onlookers gave utterance
to a moaning sigh. Samson staggered; there was blood on his lips, so tightly
had he pressed them together... Samson left the place profoundly thoughtful.
He could not have given words to his thought, but he had a feeling that
here, in this spectacle of thousands obeying a single will, he had caught
a glimpse of the great secret of politically minded peoples.

(U.S. edition, entitled Prelude
to Delilah -- the following excerpt is from pages
200-201.)

"Shall I give our people a message from you?" Samson thought for a while,
and then said slowly: "The first word is iron. They must get iron. They must
give everything they have for iron – their silver and wheat, oil and wine
and flocks, even their wives and daughters. All for iron! There is nothing
in the world more valuable than iron."

He came to the people,
erect as an oak, His voice rolled like thunder, And forward he led us, and
further, and on saying: Homeland - whatever the
price. He sang of a feast in a liberation land In a land filled with light,of
our own, for all times and to him dooms-day turned into glorious hope.Though
the song on his lips halted before time... but the nation will sing in his
stead Your voice was as water for the parched and without it-the thirst of
the soul is not quenched A giant hammer had fallen from the heaven, but in
its stead ten thousands more will rise, and hack away at stumbling blocks
encountered But - as G-d be my witness - your song will ring to the last
refrain. Esto leader, rest and do not fret: The time is yet to come, and
we shall hail it, when tens of thousands sing and march along,as banners
wave and joyous song abounds. That day - from Beersheva up to Dan,The people
will recall its savior great and to its greetings all the hills shall sound
and the valleys tool and Zion's daughters, with a song as free as nature's
own. shall gather round your grave and dance till dawn.